Existing software applications allow users to animate electronic characters and other artwork by placing a few handles on the artwork and then moving these handles. The software then figures out how to smoothly deform the rest of the artwork based on the handle movements. In this way, a user is able to animate the entire artwork by controlling only a few simple parameters, i.e., moving the handles. Deforming the artwork based on the movement of the handles is accomplished by associating the handles with the rest of the artwork using a mesh of vertices (on the artwork) that are weighted relative to the handles. Specifically, bounded biharmonic weights of the vertices determine how corresponding points on the artwork will move in response to a movement of one or more of the handles.
One current mesh-based approach uses a very fine mesh with many vertices and many small triangles throughout the mesh to ensure smooth looking deformation results even when a fine mesh is not needed on all parts of the artwork, such as when a user places two handles close to each other.